Saturday, 13 November 2010

Bad school science

From a recent Secondary School Update by
the PETA Foundation - click the image to read it

Some schools still favour old-fashioned dissection in teaching science, despite the fact that it is not mandatory and there are far superior - and cruelty-free - alternatives.

In Penglais School (Aberystwyth) we were recently told that in years 12 and 13 there is some dissection of sheep hearts and kidneys and fish gills which is the default option - if science students do not want to do this then they have to opt-out. As the Penglais School Head of Science said in an email to us: "This does not disadvantage them [the students] as they can obtain the same information from books, models and computer simulations". This begs the question: why not switch the default to the cruelty-free option then? If the school moved to alternative methods for everyone then all students would be treated equally without involving the taking of life or slaughterhouse by-products, and there are other benefits.